Were they? We know that Peter was married before he was chosen by Christ to head the Church. Paul and Christ, Himself, we know for a fact were both celibate. Christ advocated celibacy, as did St. Paul.
Matt. 19:11-12 - Jesus says celibacy is a gift from God and whoever can bear it should bear it. Jesus praises and recommends celibacy for full-time ministers in the Church. Because celibacy is a gift from God, those who criticize the Church's practice of celibacy are criticizing God and this wonderful gift He bestows on His chosen ones.
Matt. 19:29 - Jesus says that whoever gives up children for the sake of His name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. Jesus praises celibacy when it is done for the sake of His kingdom.
1 Cor 7:1 – Paul teaches that it is well for a man not to touch a woman. This is the choice that the Catholic priests of the Roman rite freely make.
1 Cor. 7:7 - Paul also acknowledges that celibacy is a gift from God and wishes that all were celibate like he is.
1 Cor. 7:27 – Paul teaches men that they should not seek marriage. In Paul’s opinion, marriage introduces worldly temptations that can interfere with one’s relationship with God, specifically regarding those who will become full-time ministers in the Church.
1 Cor. 7:32-33, 38 - Paul recommends celibacy for full-time ministers in the Church so that they are able to focus entirely upon God and building up His kingdom. He “who refrains from marriage will do better.”
Celibacy is a discipline; it is not dogma. There are Eastern Catholic Churches with married priests.
At the Synod, Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, who is Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites in Lebanon--a Catholic rite which allows for married priests--addressed the issue.
The Cardinal defended the practice of the celibate priesthood and discussed the beauty of the tradition, calling it the "most precious jewel in the treasury of the Catholic Church."
Celibacy is not what is being debated at the Synod, what is is whether married men can be accepted into th priesthood.
"While admitting married men into the priesthood would solve some problems, it would "create other equally serious" problems, he said in his Oct. 7 talk."
He's right.
A married priest has to provide for his wife and children and their education, he said. It also becomes difficult if not impossible for the bishop to transfer a priest and his whole family if tensions arise in the parish because the priest "does not have a good relationship with his parishioners."
Funny he'd think about these issues, a) money and b) the power of a hierarch to move a priest. As to the first, if the Roman Church ordains married men, the Church, meaning essentially the laity will just have to pay up; we Orthodox do, at least in countries where there is no state church. The second id even easier. If the priest becomes a problem in the parish, the bishop moves him whether he and/or his family like it or not. Its called obedience.
The real problem with a married priesthood is divorce and the attendant scandal among the faithful, especially if it involves adultery and even more especially if it is the priest who is the adulterer. That very situation is happening right now in one of our GOA parishes out West. Its awful.
" The church needs to clarify its position concerning the nature of the Eucharist, he (Bishop Orowae) said.
"Some feel that eucharistic hospitality is important," that "the Eucharist is food for the hungry, not a reward for being good."
He added that there was concern the Eucharist not be seen as "an elitist sacrament" but as "a celebration of the generosity of God."
"Others feel that the Eucharist be given only to those who are adequately prepared," he said. "How should the church explain these different opinions?"
Bishop Denis Browne of Hamilton, New Zealand, president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Oceania, told the synod Oct. 7: "We, as church, need to be continually open to finding ways in which the Eucharist can become easily available to all our faithful people."
Really????: "He, therefore, who approaches the Body and Blood of Christ in commemoration of Him who died for us and rose again must be free not only from defilement of flesh and spirit, in order that he may not eat drink unto judgement, but he must actively manifest the remembrance of Him who died for us and rose again, by being dead to sin, to the world, and to himself, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus, our Lord." St. Basil The Great, "Concerning Baptism" Book I, Ch. 3
And some silly people simply can't understand why we Orthodox say that the Latin Church does not teach the same Faith as we do and thus we are unwilling to rush into the embrace of Rome!